DESIGN AND SIMULATION ON AERODYNAMIC PERFORMANCE OF SUNKEN TRAILING EDGE AIRFOIL

In the genre of aerospace, the transition of the boundary layer always seems to be a problem that limits the aerodynamic performance of a wing. Thus, an increasing number of experiments and researches are working on optimizing the airfoil to dilute the turbulence. Based on the NACA4412 airfoil, in this paper, a new type of airfoil, sunken trailing edge airfoil, is proposed and tested by means of the Flow Simulation unit of SOLIDWORKS. And it has been verified that the new airfoil has the superior aerodynamic performance compared to the original airfoil by a large number of simulation experiments. The lift drag ratio gain of the sunken trailing edge airfoil is systematically discussed with different shapes, wind speeds, and angles of attack. The research data show that when the sunk depth is around naught and the length is about one third of the chord, sunken trailing airfoil produces the greatest lift-drag ratio increase, which can be up to 60% more than the prototype's in mid-speed flow field. Thus, this study brings a new way to design an airfoil of medium and low speed aircraft, increasing load while improving energy utilization.